


Stars Still Waiting

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Home and Away [10]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 01:15:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7664647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Multiverse, Any, College visits."</p><p>Dean's first day at the USAFA yields some surprises.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars Still Waiting

“I still cannot believe you did this to my son,” John Eric hissed as he, Samuel, and Jonathan followed Dean into the student commons.  
  
“It’s not easy to get into the Air Force Academy,” Samuel said tartly, in defense of his brother. “Dean worked really hard.”  
  
“I’m not denying that,” John Eric said hastily, but he glared at Jonathan again.  
  
Inter-service rivalries would never die. Jonathan just smiled innocently, and then he sobered, looking around one of the buildings that had been part of his home for four years of his life. He remembered being truly eighteen, away from his family for the first time, gearing up to see the world. He remembered his roommates, his comrades, his best friends. He remembered the fist-fight he’d had to break up, and the pretty nurse named Sara who’d patched him up after. He remembered a night in the brig, his friends speaking up in his defense.  
  
He remembered being _part_ of something.  
  
Now he was on his own, and it hit him again, how terrifying that was. He no longer turned around and expected to see Daniel adjusting his glasses or Sam sipping at her coffee or Teal’c standing calmly at attention. He’d stopped reaching for the phone to call Daniel for help with a crossword. He’d stopped expecting Teal’c to show up at his door with pizza and Star Wars. He’d stopped waiting for Sam’s _Sir?_ to intrude upon him at random moments.  
  
“Is this what regular college is like?” Samuel asked. “Clubs and stuff?”  
  
Jonathan winced at the notion of _clubs_ , but there were campus organizations for various special interests, like astronomy and running and martial arts and other military-useful skills. Now that Dean was fully registered and had been assigned dorms and done his campus tour, he was free to look around. Their guide, a senior cadet named Bridger, had mentioned the organizational fair in the student commons, so here they were.  
  
“There are a lot more women than I expected,” John Eric murmured, and maybe it was a good thing, that Sam wasn’t around, because she’d have launched into the statistics and history of women serving in the Air Force.  
  
“Looks like you can start specializing for certain postings now,” Samuel said, tugging on Dean’s elbow. “Do you want to be a pilot?”  
  
“I think I’d rather be a mechanic,” Dean said, looking a little dazed, but he looked the part of a young officer already, in his uniform.  
  
“Mechanics are usually enlisted men,” John Eric said.  
  
“Is it too late to enlist? Because I -” Dean cut himself off, turned, eyes narrowing.  
  
Jonathan turned with him, wary, and then he saw - Evan Lorne and another officer who Jonathan didn’t recognize, female, standing behind a table with several informational posters about deep space telemetry.  
  
Dean slewed Jonathan an accusatory look, but Jonathan raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. Nothing to see here. No plans about this. Nope, no sirree, just a crazy random happenstance, that Evan would be at the Academy on the day of Dean’s orientation tour. Jonathan really hadn’t been expecting it, and his heart was pounding.  
  
“What’s deep space telemetry?” Samuel asked.  
  
“Probably something very boring,” John Eric said, eyeing the poster with disdain.  
  
But Dean said, “Let’s go find out, huh Sammy?”  
  
“It’s Samuel,” he said flatly, but he trotted after Dean.  
  
“Heya, Evan,” Dean said, and shock flared in Evan’s eyes before he composed himself.   
  
“Long time no see. Dean, was it?” Evan offered a hand. “Major Evan Lorne. This is Major Anne Teldy. We’re stationed together at Cheyenne Mountain, doing deep space telemetry.”  
  
“What is deep space telemetry?” John Eric asked.  
  
“I’m afraid the science is a little above my paygrade,” Evan said. “I’m a geophysicist, not an astrophysicist, but we explore deep space, look for interesting things. It’s a great opportunity to work with some of the greatest scientific minds in the world. It fosters inter-service cooperation and also international civilian cooperation.” He smiled politely.  
  
“When you say explore deep space, you mean through a telescope,” John Eric said flatly, unimpressed.  
  
“Something like that,” Evan said.  
  
“Inter-service how?” Dean asked.  
  
“We work regularly with the Marine Corps,” Teldy said.   
  
John Eric raised his eyebrows. “How do Marines contribute to...deep space telemetry?”

“In very unexpected but appreciated ways,” Evan said. Pack mules, he meant. Jonathan remembered watching a Marine stumble past carrying a box of artefacts and saying, _This is revenge for all the times I picked on guys like Jackson in high school, isn’t it?_ and Daniel had responded without missing a beat:  _Revenge of the nerds._  
  
John Eric nodded at Evan’s uniform. “That’s an awful lot of chest candy for deep space telemetry. You have combat pilot training?”  
  
Evan’s smile was polite and downright demure. “I do.” He nudged a pamphlet across the table at Dean. “Have a look. Let us know if you’re interested.”  
  
Dean picked up the pamphlet, but he was wearing the same dubious expression as his father. Samuel plucked the pamphlet from his limp grasp and actually began reading it.  
  
“One more thing,” Teldy said. She reached under the table and produced what looked like a mechanical puzzle.   
  
Except it wasn’t just any kind of puzzle. It was Ancient. Jonathan would know that design style anywhere.  
  
Teldy tossed it, and Dean caught it, and as soon as it touched his skin, it flared blue, oh so briefly.  
  
“See if you can solve this,” Teldy said, and she exchanged a significant look with Evan.  
  
Dean had the gene.  
  
He also solved the puzzle with breathtaking speed, then handed it back with a shrug.  
  
“Well done,” Teldy said. “And thank you. Enjoy your time at the Academy.”  
  
“Not sure if ‘enjoy’ is the word for it,” Jonathan muttered. Teldy grinned. She too must have gone to the Academy.  
  
“Are you sure you don’t want to be a fighter pilot?” John Eric asked. “I know you like driving fast in the Impala.”  
  
Dean smiled fondly at the mention of the car he called Baby. “Yeah, but really. I like wrenching on things. Learned it from you. What other clubs do they have?”  
  
“Marksmanship,” Jonathan said. “You can get special badges for superior marksmanship. You’d have a leg up on most of the other cadets, given how your father trained you.”  
  
John Eric slewed Jonathan a look. “If you’re so gung-ho on this Academy business, why didn’t you go for it?” _And leave my son out of it_ , he meant.  
  
“Have to have a diploma. All I have is a GED.” Jonathan shrugged innocently. “I just can’t sit still for school.”  
  
“Let’s go check out the marksmanship thingie,” Dean said, and dragged Jonathan across the room. Samuel, to John Eric’s dismay, was leading John Eric to speak with some JAG officers. No one was quite sure where Sam’s interest in law had come from.  
  
“That’s your sugar daddy,” Dean said in a low voice.  
  
“I provide for myself, thanks,” Jonathan said.  
  
“Did you know he’d be here?”  
  
“I knew he graduated from here, but I really didn’t think they were recruiting for the program straight out of the cadet class.” Jonathan glanced over his shoulder at where Evan and Teldy were overseeing some other cadet fumble with the Ancient rubiks cube.  
  
“Program?” Dean echoed.  
  
“Obviously not really deep space telemetry,” Jonathan said.  
  
Dean glanced back at the table as well. “Obviously. That guy has a bunch of combat medals. Are they all real? Because that’s pretty badass for an artist.”  
  
“They’re all real,” Jonathan said quietly, and thought of the uniform he’d worn, the medals and badges he’d earned.  
  
“And if I signed up for that program of theirs?”  
  
Jonathan said, “It’d be the commitment of a lifetime, but you’d change the universe.”  
  
“A lifetime? Not twenty years?”  
  
“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”  
  
Dean studied Jonathan’s face for a long moment. Then he did an about-face and marched back to the table. “Tell me more about deep-space telemetry.”

Teldy nodded gamely and began speaking in roundabout ways of service, valor, bravery, new frontiers. Evan gazed at Jonathan, and Jonathan itched to reach out to him, touch him, kiss him, but all of that was impossible.  
  
Dean glanced at Jonathan, then at Evan, and he said, “Can I get a card from one of you? If I have more questions.”  
  
Evan reached into his pocket, drew one out, slid it across the table. “Email any time, Cadet Winchester. We’re always glad to have fine young officers in our ranks.”  
  
“Thanks, Major,” Dean said, and pocketed the card.  
  
Later, over lunch, he handed it to Jonathan. Written on the back was a time. Evan was coming by tonight. Perfect.  
  
“At least the food here’s better than what we got at basic,” John Eric muttered.  
  
“Maybe I’ll join up too,” Samuel said, “and become a JAG officer.”  
  
John Eric choked on his water, shot Jonathan another poisonous glare.  
  
Jonathan smiled innocently and kept on eating. His time among the stars was done, but the stars were still waiting for the young and the bright and the brave.


End file.
